Kung Fu Panda 3
by SilverTigerdirector
Summary: Times are changing in the world of Kung Fu. More specifically in the world of the Kung Fu masters. Technologies have been salvaged from Shen's defeat, but unfortunately they were not salvaged by the right people. Now a new threat emerges on the borders of China with new forms of weaponry. Some ties will be severed. Others will bond stronger than ever before.


**1**

The winds of the Valley of Peace soared and swirled through the sky. It flew under the blue canvas that was painted in floating soft stretches of white and a burning yellow ball. The heat from the orb warmed the wind. And yet the day was warm, the wind was nonetheless greeted by each living plant, every crawling thing, every element amongst this atmosphere. Including the waters that spew out of the cliffsides and with the droplets landing by the trajectory of the winds which they fell.

But the heavier, more collective waters continued on. And the many droplets that consisted of these great masses fell with grand force but slowing pace. For once the waterfalls ended, the springs began. It's small rushes and juts of water flowed around the laying rocks and smoothened stones, never yielding and unwavering from it's blinded path. The surface of the waters, no matter how choppy or rough, created a mirror-like campus for nature to gaze at it's own reflection. The sun above that shown down upon everything that it surveyed watched the waters, and the rocks and dirt that had long ago settled at the bottom of the small rapids. And through nature taking it's course, the sun created it's own reflection from it's watching.

Oh how the cool waters loved and hated the fiery sun. It's heat made them feel wonderful, yet it mocked them in it's mighty altitude. And how the sun loved and hated the waters. For the waters amazed the sun in it's talented dancing and effortless flow. Yet it was always jealous of the waters and their ability to touch every life it gave.

Forever did the two wish to be together, and forever did they wish to be each other. The sun wished to be able to feel. Simply to feel. And the waters simply wished to raise themselves up to be an equal to the sun. But wait. Some may do just that.

A pail had been dipped into the rushes, quickly filling the wooden cylinder up. The pail was raised higher, away from the rest of the waters. The wooden bucket was placed upon a shoulder. And all that could be seen of the transporter, this savior, was it's three large, furry, white and orange digits. Finally the waters could be higher. Finally they could reach the su-

"Wha!", Po coughed and gasped as he sat up, now soaking wet. He wiped his eyes of the water that his fuzzy brow had caught and looked up, still breathing a little heavily. His view was a little blurred, and he must squint his eyes for the sun stood just behind the figure that threw the waters on him. He heard the figure laugh under it's breath at the panda's fur that was now very disorganized, sticking out in places and matted in others.

The figure held the now empty pail at her hip with her left hand settled on the lip of the cylinder and the right on her right hip.

"Did you have pleasant dreams, Po?", asked the female in an obviously amused tone.

Po quickly stood up, wobbling slightly before his stance could steady. Once his toes found the ground under them to be stabilized, his green irises looked upon the female again, being able to view her fully from this height.

"Oh. Yeah, sorry Tigress. I was just er...", he trailed off and motioned his thumb over his shoulder at the Training Hall he stood behind, his chin following the small appendage, but his eyes never left the feline before him.

Tigress had exposed a small fang in her smirk at Po's antics, which momentarily puzzled the panda"Trying to hide from training."

"What? Naw, I was just..."

"Trying to hide from _me_?", her smirk had left, but in it's place appeared the slight raising of her brow.

"No, no, no, you see-"

"Well you have two options, _panda_. Either spar with me, or wipe down the Hall of Heroes. Which, coincidentally, Master Shifu asked you to do two weeks ago?"

The panda looked to his left. Then to his right, weighing his options. His eyes flashed for a moment when he saw the Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom perched at the top of the distant hill. Tigress raised her brow even higher, her shoulders swung inward to cross her arms in impatience of the panda's lack of an answer with the handle of the wooden thing in her posession hanging from it's handle off of one of her claws.

"Well?", the tiger asked curtly, sounding somewhat agitated.

Po pressed his knuckle under his chin and rubbed his thumb along his jawline in contemplation. He looked up with a smile that both amused and unsettled Tigress.

"I think I will choose...option number...three!", suddenly Po ran off in the direction of the Peach Tree. Tigress went rigid on instinct from his immediate action, but then dropped the pail and with the spin of her heel she got on all fours to begin the chase.

The panda ran with all his might towards his destination, hoping desperately that his new trick would work on the tiger. And so far everything was going according to plan. He looked behind him to see Tigress running with a toothy grin. But then he became nervous at just how close she was to catching up to him, so he turned his head forward and focused once more on his plan.

"Po!", shouted Tigress, hoping to slow him down. He did not respond, and kept his current path.

In the distance, Crane sat perched atop a pillar beside the Palace Arena watching the two. The wind softly ruffled his feathers, yet he took little notice of it's calming embrace when he observed the nervous scene. He jumped a little when Viper found the top and brushed his leg, yet he did not look away from this somewhat perplexing view.

"Hey.", said Viper as she began to watch the sight with Crane.

"Hey.", resonded the bird.

"What are those two up to now?", asked Viper with a small giggle.

"I think Tigress found Po taking a nap again."

"Oh, you saw him?", Viper asked, keeping an eye on her friends.

"Well, no, but Tigress had a pail full of water with her when she disappeared behind the Training Hall. And now Po's all wet.", he said while rolling his sand colored eyes.

Viper shook her head with a soft smile,"Do you think they'll ever get passed it?"

Crane glanced at his snake friend for a moment, but continued to watch as Po hid behind the Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom,"Passed what?"

The snake rolled her eyes a bit, looking away from the scene to look at Crane,"You know, that stage where friends _act _like there's nothing between them, but it's blatently obvious to everyone else?"

"Oh. That. Well not to be the downer here, but...", he squinted his eyes once Tigress found the tree, then circled it. He raised a brow when he realized that Po had apparently disappeared,"Tigress was never the brightest when it comes to these things. And Po is kind of..."

"Undignified.", sighed Viper in understanding once her mouth found a frown. Crane nodded, and once again Viper shook her head,"Maybe they could make good use of some help?"

Out of sheer surprise and complete reluctance, Crane looked directly at Viper,"Ohohoho, no, I don't do "match ups"."

Viper hissed a little, flicking her tongue in and out of her mouth in aggrivation,"Fine.", she slowly slid down the pillar,"Don't expect any credit after I do it all by myself."

"Good luck.", called back Crane as he watched Tigress sniff the air and run towards the gardens.

Back with the tiger, Tigress had a smirk hiding under her growing anger. This panda was becoming a challenge. Tigress continued to smell the air for his scent, and kept her sprint towards the gardens. She trampled through the courtyard, rounding a small hill that distinguished the seperation between the gardens and the Jade Palace.

The feline soon found herself in an ocean of flowers. Red ones, blue ones, orange, yellow, purple...and each had their own scent. Her large paws reduced the speed of the run into a jog when the bushes grew thicker and thicker together.

Soon the tiger had stood up straight and now walked slowly through the many bushes, finally allowing a fraction of her smile to show as she scanned the grounds,"Impressive, Dragon Warrior. You have become rather crafty...", she said in hopes that he may give away his location to respond. To her small surprise, he did not. But she was gaining on him, she could "smell" it.

She soon stopped by a yellow flowered tree that was only thirty-five years of age, and her eyebrows raised slightly at such obviousness. Tigress smirked and allowed her feet to lead her to the trunk of the tree. But it wasn't just any tree. It was the tree he was hiding in. She could not smell his scent from the tree because of the flowers in the way, but she knew.

"Then again...", she continued, bending her knees while her back arched in a crouch,"it might be time for you to go back to the scrolls.", she began to leap up, but in mid jump she saw a black and white fuzzball fly behind her to the ground.

Tigress landed on the apex of the tree, and turned around to just barely see the thing disappear behind some low hanging branches in her line of sight. She grinned, and dropped down only to grab onto a branch and swing in the opposing direction of her opponent. The black and white figure rolled under the kick she sent to it, so she fell to the ground and spun around to halt.

The female's grin faded some out of habit to focus on the task at hand. She had never been beaten by this panda before, she was not about to start now. A glance to settle her compulsion to have peace of mind was all she needed to make certain where the panda was. Standing on the other side of the tree's trunk. The only question that remained was, which way was he facing?

But then Tigress looked again at the tree, a little longer this time to notice something. He was getting thinner. So much so that she could not see him from behind the tree. Certainly when you spend so much time with someone, you do not notice the small changes they make every single day. But was she really spending this much time with Po to not notice something so big? Or in this case...not so big anymore.

Master Tigress was snapped out of her thoughts once she noticed the snapping of a twig. And soon she realized that she was the one who did the snapping. In her trance she was actually leaning forward in a subconcious attempt to look around the tree. And now she would have to make up for her mistake.

As soon as she thought this, the large feet she cursed not a moment before she now relied on to run around the tree trunk once more when the back of a fist almost swung straight into the side of her head. She was too busy to noticed as of now, but the fist now made a small indentation into the wood. The chips that flew off fell to the ground only to be kicked away by a black foot.

Tigress dug her claws into the trunk and used her momentum to swing around and kick the panda in the back. Apparently predicting this, Po hopped up and grabbed onto a tree branch and swung backwards over her to land behind her.

She swept a leg under him from behind, but he rolled forward around the bend. Thinking she could gain advantage from his low point, Tigress turned around to pounce at him. But unfortunately, that is not exactly what happened. Po assumed she would follow him predicting that she would predict his own predictions. Thereby going in the exact opposite which was indeed following him. So he was going to get up out of his roll, grab onto another branch and basically swing a double kick to her stomach.

But when Po stood up to jump, with Tigress leaping towards him...

"Ow!", shouted Po when his butt hit the ground. Yet he now held his head and rubbed the fur on his cranium, squinting his eyes tight and groaning. Tigress was no different, though she did not shout.

"Well that was...unexpected.", grumbled Tigress, who flinched when her fingers brushed against the now tender skin that had previously pressed harshly into her skull.

"Yeah, I know. Call it a draw?", mumbled Po, slightly opening one eye to look at the tiger sitting opposite him in the shade of the tree. She nodded and sighed before he continued,"Hey, uh...what did you mean by maybe I should go back to the scrolls?", he said picking off a few leaves from the black fur on his shoulders.

At this, Tigress opened her eyes to very thin lines from the still throbbing pain in her skull. Despite this, she smiled,"Kind of an obvious hiding place, Po. The only tree in the middle of a garden of bushes?"

The panda paused from his cleaning, and not looking away from his left shoulder that held a small leaf in mid removal he murmured,"Oh, okay. I just thought you meant..."

Tigress opened her eyes a little more out of surprise,"You mean you hid there because of _that_?"

"Uh, well, heh, uh-you know, it is, like, your favorite flower and all.", shrugged the panda with a smile at the grass, mixed with yellow acacia flowers that had fallen from their antics, beside him and a paw rubbing the back of his neck. He glanced at her, now taking notice of her stare,"...because, you know, I would've thought that you'd overlook something that obvious.", he quickly added as he dusted himself off.

Tigress frowned a little and nodded again,"Oh, of-of course.", she looked up when he stood and outstretched his hand. Still holding her head where the goose egg was beginning to emerge, she grabbed his forearm with her other hand and took notice of the small gasp she made under her breath when he grasped her own forearm and pulled her up to her feet with minimal effort.

They stood there for a second staring at each other in silence, until Po made his signiture half grin, half worried frown. A look of concern that she had always admired,"Hey, you okay? My head isn't _that _hard, is it?", he let out a small nervous laugh.

Tigress snapped out of her slight daze at his words. She then allowed a smile from his laugh, blinked slightly and tenderly shook her head,"No, I am alright. Thank you, Po."

"Anytime, Tigress."

"Aheherm."

The two looked at the red panda with a long staff at his side standing on their other side facing the tree they stood in front of. He had lowered his eyelids halfway, yet raised his eyebrows higher than they had ever been. And he looked back and forth between Master Tigress and the Dragon Warrior, apparently expecting a reply.

The two then looked at one another, now registering the fact that they had been holding each other's arm this entire time. The two immediately let go of each other and turned to face their master with a bow.

"Yes, Master Shifu!", the two said in unison, hoping desperately to be rid of this awkward feeling.

The red panda took a moment to allow their feeling of awkwardness to sink in, but soon that moment ended. For business had to be taken care of.

"I trust that the two of you have had a good morning?", not allowing them the time to retort at his comment when they opened their mouths, he continued,"Dragon Warrior?", the master then gestured with his long bony finger for the other panda to follow him as the shorter one turned around and began to walk away.

The panda and tiger glanced at each other before Po walked away to follow their master down the path that led out the other side of the gardens and towards the Dragon Grotto.

Tigress stared at the spot where Po disappeared behind the bend of a hill for just a few seconds, then absentmindedly rubbed her head, flinching once again when she felt the large lump. The tiger huffed a sigh through her nose, turned around, and walked through the gardens to head back to the Jade Palace.

At her arrival through the large Eastern doorway, she took notice of the goose flying low across the Palace courtyard with the empty bucket she had dropped now in his beak. She stood in his path, causing the goose to stop and land. He took the handle out of his mouth and began to ask her if she needed anything, but she stopped him with a raised left paw and the other on the side of the bucket.

"I am the one who left it out, please allow me to put it away.", said the tiger. The goose nodded.

"Of course, Master Tigress.", he said in a nasal voice with a bow before letting go of the bucket once she took a firm grip of it's wooden panels. He then flew off.

Tigress straightened up and sighed a little as she watched the bird fly away. Turning around to continue her path inside, her back paws stopped short when the red eyes of the feline found the blue eyes of the reptilian resident of the Jade Palace sitting in the doorway.

"Hello, Viper. Excuse me, but I must be getting inside.", stated Tigress as her fur covered body treaded carefully over the coils of the green scaled snake. Once Viper saw that Tigress had passed over her body completely, she turned around to make her body slide together to shift it's position before the snake could begin to follow the tiger inside.

"Tigress, do you mind if I ask you something?"

This was met with an unseen roll of red and yellow eyes once Tigress made her transit through the open side doors to the Hall of Heroes. An innate urge to purr hit her when her currently bare paws hit the cold marble floor; her sandles were at the moment still in the Training Hall from earlier that day. But as always, the Master of Tiger Style Kung Fu resisted her urge with ease. Never, not once in her detailed and painful memories since the age of two, had she purred in her life, and she was not about to start now for such a frivelous and meaningless reason.

The tiger swallowed on instinct when her urge to purr faded,"Not at all, please go ahead.", she said making her way to the hidden broom closet in the back of the long room. She had to pull out a panel of marble on the wall by prying her finger into a small hole in the crease that was waist height for the tiger. This action revealed the most unappealing sight of cleaning supplies piled into the small space. She placed the bucket in the only vacant space on the floor of the closet and placed her hand on the door when Viper spoke up once again.

"How do you feel about Po?", asked Viper in an innocent tone.

Tigress hesitated, just for a second, to shut the door. But she quickly regained her composure and did as such. Not many would have caught the almost unreadable mannerism when her hand lingered on the wall for a moment when the door was shut. She turned around and faced the snake with a face of stoic emotionlessness.

"I feel that he is a fine warrior, a skilled cook, and a good friend.", she stated while passing the other female once again. And once again Viper followed her as they walked and slithered to the direction of the front door.

"Oh yes, those are all very true traits indeed, and he has proven the qualities time and time again. But I was speaking of _another _context.", said the snake as she raised her head halfway up the tiger's height when they stopped at the bottom of the steps to the Hall of Heroes threshold.

Tigress crossed her arms as she faced Viper, this time with a slight smile of amusement,"And what context would that be?"

"Why the context for husband material, of course.", laughed the snake softly with a slight look of awkwardness as if this was an obvious subject to think about when mentioning the Dragon Warrior.

Tigress' face then turned sour,"And you wish to know if I have feelings for said panda, am I correct?"

Viper was somewhat surprised at Tigress' sudden change in expression,"Well, I-"

"You think I want to marry him?"

"M-maybe not mar-"

"You think I want to be with him romantically?", Tigress asked with a raised brow.

"Not in the way yo-"

"So tell me, if you do not think I wish to marry him or be involved with him in any way beyond friendship, I ask you to please enlighten me as to how you think I could possibly want the panda in any shape or form.", asked Tigress in a calm voice, but you could hear every bit of malice behind her words.

The snake blinked a few times out of shock and shook her head a little, her mouth slightly agape.

"Well if-", she never finished her sentence as Tigress immediately walked away with her fists at her sides.

Viper watched the feline in a stare, never moving from her position as Crane walked up behind her chuckling to himself. As he passed her, the avian leaned over and spoke in a singsong tone.

"Tolllld yaaaa..."

Viper scowled at Crane as he walked up the steps to the Hall of Heroes with a smug air about him, then she slithered off in the direction of the Arena.

Back with Po and Master Shifu, the two pandas had stopped on the edge of the cliff outside of the Dragon Grotto where a waterfall emerged from the side of the mountain. Po was staring out at the Valley of Peace, but more specifically where the Valley ended; on the horizon.

The giant panda held onto the scroll in his left hand that his master had given him as if his life depended on it. His jade eyes gazed about the scenery, and though his heart was rather heavy and excited, he felt at ease when the warm wind in combination of the light spritzing of the cool waters below him blew into his fur. The black and white fur was now glistening in the sun from the droplets clinging to his body. Master Shifu stood a good six feet behind him, still holding onto Oogway's old staff at his side and was now staring at Po's back.

"Panda...you have to speak at some point, you might as well do it now before I grow impatient.", said Shifu before laughing under his breath. The Dragon Warrior turned to his six o' clock, not directly facing his master but was now facing the general direction of the smaller creature. But his head was facing downward towards the large stone they stood on.

"I don't understand, master.", said Po with a slightly shaking head before raising it a degree to look at Master Shifu,"Why are you telling _me _this? Why not Tigress?", he put the scroll to his chest.

"Because, Po...", said the red panda walking up to the Dragon Warrior,"You are to succeed me when I pass, _in the stead _of Tigress. And you must learn to take on the responsibilities that the Grandmaster must uphold, particularly leadership roles."

Po inhaled a deep breath silently, trying to hide his look of shock as he blinked repeatedly at the red panda,"Oh, well...thank you, Master Shifu...", he bowed slightly in respect and gratefulness,"it's truly an honor. But what's going to happen to Tigress?"

"She and the Furious Five of this generation will one day part from one another to defend China throughout and live their lives.", he stated as he turned around waving his free hand whilst walking away,"Starting families, getting regular jobs, etcetra, etcetra..."

"What!", exclaimed the panda, who hurriedly caught up to Master Shifu and hunched down to look at him as they walked at the red panda's pace,"Bu-bu-bu-but they're my friends! Isn't there some other way?"

"It has been the tradition of the Furious Five since Master Oogway started the team at the birth of Kung Fu. We do not break tradition, no matter how much it may sting the heart.", said Shifu solumnly, never looking at the panda as he kept walking. Po had now stood up straight and stopped in his tracks.

"But Master Shifu, I...", Po sighed as his master took no notice of stopping and turning around. He looked at the rolled up scroll in his hand once again and unravelled the paper partially to reveal the top of the old message.

It read:

_"To whomever comes to this door,_

_Please take care of our beloved daughter. She may be a handful to your kind, but I beg for you to be patient with her. Do not send her away. It is our request that whoever adopts her loves her with as much care and tenderness as we would provide, for what will come will surely not end upon her coming of age. If her mother and I are still alive the day she turns twenty seven, I ask that you meet us in the village of Wei Xi Leong. To get there, take the Northern road that leads out of Bao Gu into a series of mountains. After the second mountain, you head th..."_


End file.
